Beer and M&Ms
September 11, 2010
8:00 a.m. or About
Run Day Information
This fun run for the strong of stomach is held in September. There is no entry form or registration fee, only a requirement that you bring M&Ms (no mint) and a six-pack of beer to share. Runners line up around 8 a.m. Food, M&Ms, beer and beverages are available after the run, during the run and before the run.
Event Organizer: John Qualheim
Course Description
The course begins at Owen Park in Eau Claire and follows the bike trail south along the Chippewa River half as far as a runner wants to run and then the runner turns around and returns. That's why they call it re-turns. Traditionally, many participants run 10 miles out and 10 miles back to prepare for their fall marathons.
History (adapted from articles by Paul Billmeyer and Mike Salm)
The Beer and M&M
run was started by Dick Kennedy, a local physician. The best
guess sets the initial running of the race in 1979. Some say the
run was started to replace the old Eau Claire Marathon which wasn’t
being held any longer. Others say it was started to have a long
training run for those planning a fall marathon. Like any
history that is passed word of mouth, there is plenty of urban
myth that develops. For instance, Don Marjala mentioned how in
the early years Dick Kennedy would pick-up some “road kill” the
night before the race and drive it 13.1 miles out of town. The
next morning the runners would run to the “road kill,” circle
it, then run back to town. Few agree this is how it started, but
it’s a good story.
Everyone agrees that the race went from the Silver Dollar tavern in Menomonie and would end at the Camaraderie in Eau Claire. Joe Giamonna would open the Silver Dollar early for the racers to have a refreshment before the race began. The race would kick-off with the popping of a beer can. The entry fee was (and still is) a six-pack of beer and a bag of M&M’s. No light beer and no mint M&M’s were allowed. Some like to tell the story of how the runners would have a beer a mile. (More urban legend.) Roger Hubbard recalls the most beer consumed by one runner was 18 cans.
As a joke in 1980 Roger Hubbard advertised the race in Runner’s World magazine. (I recall reading the ad out of Runner’s World when I lived in Dubuque, and looking at a map to find out where Eau Claire was.) The ad brought in a couple of runners from Pennsylvania on their way to the Leadville 100 Race. They are remembered for not drinking any liquids on the race in order to train for the 100 miler. Lastly, I was told the ad also brought a runner from Green Bay who was the first to finish. He was disqualified because he didn’t have a beer along the way.
For a wonderful personal
account of the fun run in its early days, read
Mark Blaskey's article.
Mike Salm, former president, remembered the 2006 fun run this way: "Paul Billmeyer and I were driving the neighborhoods of the college rental houses that surround the UWEC campus looking for a grill to 'borrow' so that we could cook the hamburgers and bratwursts for the finishing runners. I haven’t tried to “borrow” anything like that for a long, long time. It felt like a twilight zone episode. We knocked on the door of a house that had empty and smashed beer bottles littering the porch. Nobody answered the door. Instead the still-drunk neighbor answered his door next door. So rather than ask to borrow the grill of the apparently comatose college students who resided where we were, we ask the completely intoxicated college student who lived next door to borrow his grill. Of course, we could. He was too drunk to understand a word. Or we didn’t wait to see if he understood."
Last Updated 02/09/2010